generic xslt to nest a xml-document as text within an element

[Martin]

Hallo,

can you help me writing a generic xslt transformation (useable with xsql from oracle)? The problem is how to get the escaping characters ....

=== INPUT-File in.xml
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<person><who>scott</who></person>

=== Needed OUTPUT-File out.xml
=== Note: the format must be exactly this to be
=== processable by xsql using xsql-insert
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<ROWSET><ROW>
<NAME>&lt;person>&lt;who>scott&lt;/who>&lt;/person></NAME> </ROW></ROWSET>

=== My xslt-File p.xsl, that misses the important fact
=== of replacing < with &lt;
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xslutput method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/> <xsl:template match="@*|node"> <xsl:element name="ROWSET"> <xsl:element name="ROW"> <xsl:element name="NAME"> <xsl:copy-of select="."/> </xsl:element> </xsl:element> </xsl:element> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

=== my output, that is not the expected
oraxsl in.xml p.xsl
<ROWSET><ROW><NAME><person><who>scott</who></person></NAME></ROW></ROWSET>

Any ideas?
Thank you if you find the time for helping,
Martin

 

[Patrick TJ McPhee]

% === INPUT-File in.xml
% <?xml version = '1.0'?>
% <person><who>scott</who></person>
%
% === Needed OUTPUT-File out.xml
% === Note: the format must be exactly this to be
% === processable by xsql using xsql-insert
% <?xml version = '1.0'?>
% <ROWSET><ROW>
% <NAME>&lt;person>&lt;who>scott&lt;/who>&lt;/person></NAME> % </ROW></ROWSET>

% === My xslt-File p.xsl, that misses the important fact % === of replacing < with &lt; % <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" % version="1.0"> % <xslutput method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/> % <xsl:template match="@*|node"> % <xsl:element name="ROWSET"> % <xsl:element name="ROW"> % <xsl:element name="NAME"> % <xsl:copy-of select="."/> % </xsl:element> % </xsl:element> % </xsl:element> % </xsl:template> % </xsl:stylesheet>

You should keep in mind that the output of the XSLT process is a tree, not just text. When you use copy-of, what you're doing is copying the tree structure related to the node, not the tags themselves.

So, how do you get the tags? Probably node-by-node, using the name function. If all you want is a copy of the original document with < and & escaped, I'm not sure XSLT is the best thing to use, but let's have an untested go at it

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xslutput method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

<!-- need to handle elements, pis, comments, and attributes separately since we need to format the tags. We start with elements --> <xsl:template match="*"> <!-- no need for xsl:element here, so let's not use it --> <ROWSET> <ROW> <NAME> <xsl:text>&lt;</xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="name"/>

<!-- attributes go here -->
<xsl:for-each select="@*">
<xsl:value-of select='name'/.
<xsl:text>='</xsl:text>
<!-- you might need to deal with quotes here -->
<xsl:value-of select='.'/.
<xsl:text>'</xsl:text>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:text>&gt;</xsl:text>

<xsl:apply-templates/>

<xsl:text>&lt;/</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name"/>
<xsl:text>&gt;</xsl:text>
</NAME>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="processing-instruction">
<xsl:text>&lt;?</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text>?&gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="comment">
<xsl:text>&lt;-- </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text> --&gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

[Martin]

Hallo Patrick,

for an untested go your answer was really excellent.
I've found (after quite some more study of xsl/xpath) a solution, but comparing it with your solution i got to know the difference between a beginner and an expert (simply because my solution was neither elegant, nor did I cover points like comment-nodes or processing instructions).

A big thank you for your answer!

For other readers: see the finished solution below ...

Greetings from vienna,
Martin

===== rowset_row_doc.xsl
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xslutput method="xml" />

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:element name="ROWSET">
<xsl:element name="ROW">
<xsl:element name="DOC">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

<!-- need to handle elements, pis, comments, and attributes separately since we need to format the tags. We start with elements --> <xsl:template match="*"> <xsl:text>&lt;</xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="name"/>

<!-- attributes go here -->
<xsl:for-each select="@*">
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:text>="</xsl:text>
<!-- Assumption: input file has not apostrophs -->
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:text>&gt;</xsl:text>

<xsl:apply-templates/>

<xsl:text>&lt;/</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name"/>
<xsl:text>&gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="processing-instruction">
<xsl:text>&lt;?</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='name'/>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text>?&gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="comment">
<xsl:text>&lt;-- </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select='.'/>
<xsl:text> --&gt;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
===== output from above sample
C:\XDK>oraxsl in.xml rowset_row_doc.xsl
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<ROWSET><ROW><DOC>&lt;person>&lt;who>scott&lt;/who>&lt;/person></DOC></ROW></ROWSET>